The future of aquatic services across Campaspe Shire came to a head at last week’s council meeting when councillors made a landmark decision.
The council rescinded a previous motion that recommended the decommissioning of pools across the shire.
Councillors also voted in favour of strongly advocating for funding for a new aquatic facility in Rochester and demolishing the current Rochester pool in the meantime.
During the meeting, the motion was divided into two parts: first, discussing the general future of aquatic services across the shire, and second, about Rochester specifically.
During the first section, the council voted in favour of rescinding a previous motion from 2022 that would ‘close and decommission the Colbinabbin, Lockington, Rushworth, Stanhope and Tongala pools’.
Cr John Zobec said the community had made its wishes clear.
“The community has pretty much showed us what they want. They were resilient in their approach, and they wanted the pools,” he said.
Mayor Rob Amos said the community deeply valued the shire’s pools.
“I think the community can now feel reassured that this council is committed to working towards a strategy so we can have (aquatic) facilities ... across our shire,” he said.
In the second section of the debate, the council discussed the motions specific to Rochester, eventually voting to allocate up to $500,000 for the demolition of the Rochester pool following extensive community consultation in 2023.
Campaspe Shire communities director Jo Bradshaw said the pool’s demolition was important to the community’s mental health.
“(The Rochester pool) is currently unsafe, it is damaged ... it does have some water in it, so we need to decommission it completely,” she said.
“It can also be triggering for some of our residents who are still traumatised from the flood event.”
Concerns around the mental health of residents were shared by Cr Amos.
“The mental health problems that are still occurring in Rochester are real and they’re still ongoing and they’re still strong, and this is causing part of that,” he said.
“This site does need to be cleaned up for the sake of the residents’ mental health.”
Cr Amos said council aimed to have a new pool ready to be built in Rochester when it got funding.
“We have approved the Rochester aquatics functional brief, which reflects the desires and aspirations of residents garnered through extensive engagement activities,” he said.
“Officers will progress with getting a detailed design and costing for a new facility in Rochester so that the project is ‘shovel ready’ when funding becomes available.
“We will strongly advocate to the state and federal governments for funding for a new aquatic facility in Rochester.”